Former President, Goodluck
Jonathan has said he is proud to have been the President under whom Nigeria
made her best improvement in the Corruption Perception Index of Transparency
International.

Jonathan stated this in a press
statement sent to Media houses on his behalf by his former Special Assistant on
New Media, Reno Omokri.

The statement was a response to
claims by former Economic and Financial Crimes Commission (EFCC) boss, Farida
Waziri, in which she said at an interactive session in Lagos that she will
kneel down to thank former President Goodluck Jonathan for sacking her as the
commission’s boss.

According to Mrs Waziri, had she
not been sacked by the ex-President, she would have been traumatized by now,
given the ongoing revelation of alleged grand corruption that took place under
the last administration.

However, Jonathan said that
Farida Waziri has a history of badmouthing former Presidents to enter the good
books of the incumbent President.

He said: “My attention has been
drawn to comments made by Farida Waziri to the effect that she was removed as
Chairperson of the Economic and Financial Crimes Commission because of a
particular case she was handling.

“Mrs. Waziri also said that she
received a call from Aso Rock over this case which instructed her to drop her
investigations.

“It is understandable that when
there is a new government in power, people would want to ingratiate themselves
to the new administration and one of the easiest way to do this is by
demonizing the previous government.

“Nigerians will remember that
Mrs. Farida Waziri was appointed as the chairperson of the EFCC by the late
President Umaru Musa Yar’adua in May 2008 under very controversial
circumstances after the unceremonious removal of the pioneer Chairman of the
EFCC, Mr. Nuhu Ribadu.

“It will be recalled that after
she was appointed, Mrs. Farida Waziri made some uncomplimentary remarks against
former President Olusegun Obasanjo because he said “I know that the woman they
brought in to replace Ribadu (Farida Waziri) was not the right person for that
job”.

“In response to that statement,
Mrs. Farida Waziri described ex-President Obasanjo as a man known for “speaking
in a manner that betrays his status as an elder statesman”. She also accused
President Obasanjo of ‘mischief’.

“Farida Waziri made those
comments to ingratiate herself to the then administration and her accusations
against former President Obasanjo were denied.

“Mrs. Farida Waziri also accused
her predecessor, Malam Nuhu Ribadu, of being used by former President Obasanjo
“to push the aborted third term agenda”. And claimed to have been Mr. Ribadu’s
instructor at the Police Academy.

“Again, her comments were found
to be untrue and Malam Ribadu released a statement then and said as follows;

“This is a unclad lie that she
keeps flaunting to seek undue relevance and validate her own appointment. At no
time in my career did I work under the same section or unit as her. In fact,
contrary to the Waziri’s claim that she ‘trained’ me, it was I that actually
lectured her and others, on fraud investigation and prosecution, when she was
newly posted as Head of Special Fraud Unit even though she was my senior in
rank.

“That Mrs. Farida Waziri has a
history of telling lies against former Presidents in order to ingratiate
herself to the serving President is an established fact and old habits die
hard.

“I never called Farida Waziri
from the Aso Rock Presidential Villa or any State House at any given time,
neither did he ask her to drop or take up any investigation.

“Let it be known that there is no
statute of limitations on corruption cases and if Mrs. Farida Waziri has any
evidence that she was asked to drop any cases of corruption, she is challenged
to show proof of such.

“I fired Mrs. Farida Waziri for
reasons he would choose not to disclose publicly for now, but Nigerians may
want to remember that Nigeria continued to sink in Transparency International’s
annual Corruption Perception Index during Mrs. Waziri’s tenure at the EFCC.

“Things got so bad at her last
year at the EFCC (2011) that we moved from 134 in 2010 to 143 in 2011 which
represented a backward movement of 9 points. Which God fearing leader would
leave a person responsible for such retrogression as the head of a sensitive
institution as the EFCC.

“It would also be recalled that
the transparency website, Wikileaks, exposed that both the US Federal Bureau of
Investigations and the London Metropolitan Police refuses to cooperate with the
EFCC under Farida Waziri because of doubts they had about her credibility.
Those Wikileaks cables are still publicly available.

“However, after the sack of Mrs.
Waziri in 2011, Nigeria made her highest improvements in the annual Corruption
Perception Index till date in 2014 when we moved eighth places from 144 to 136,
so in essence the facts speak for themselves.

“I am proud to have been the
President under whom Nigeria made her best improvement in the Corruption
Perception Index of Transparency International. That is a fact. And so he is
not concerned about the opinion of Farida Waziri or other persons as opinions
cannot overthrow facts.”

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Des-pact your frowns,you had the opportunity to change a lot but you where too simple. In all this things you where still 1000% better in your 3rd year in office than what we are experiencing today. Atmosphere full of hardship coax on us by PMB APC lead administration. Building a simple GIS website with 700 Million. No story when Buhari government never bring. Corruption gone viral in 9ja